September 30, 2009
Good news - it's Supreme Court Week.
Reach out and iPod Touch someone
Chimera Apple
Million to one apple is half red, half green. "Fruit grower Ken Morrish was left stunned when he found a golden delicious apple on his tree split exactly half green, half red down the middle." [more inside]
This rock and roll has gotta stop, Junior's head's as hard as rock
Larry Williams is not as famous as many of his contemporaries, but was responsible for a long string of hits beginning with Short Fat Fannie in 1957. He continued to produce such rock and roll staples as Slow Down, Bony Moronie, and She Said Yeah. His songs are probably better known today through other artists' interpretations of his songs. Williams' songs have been covered by: The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Beatles, The Replacements, The Beatles, Johnny Winter, The Who, The Plastic Ono Band, Paul McCartney, and The Jam. Also Sha Na Na. And every garage band in the world. [more inside]
Change we can believe in?
John L. Perry worked in the Johnson and Carter administrations. He posts once a week at a blog called Right Angles. Perry's latest column suggested that a "civilized" military coup to "resolve the Obama problem" should not be dismissed as "unrealistic". Another person who thinks a military dictatorship may be in America's future? Gore Vidal.
The Doers Club
Oldest Family Run Business
So how long have you been running your business? The Houshi Onsen in Komatsu, Japan. About a 2.5 hour train ride north from Kyoto is the Houshi Onsen complex was founded in 718.
The legend states that the god of Mount Hakusan visited a Buddhist priest and told him to uncover an underground hot spring in a nearby village. He found the hot spring and asked his disciple, a woodcutter’s son named Gengoro Sasakiri, to build and operate a spa on the site. His family has run a hotel in Komatsu ever since.
The structure houses 450 people in 100 rooms. For generations, Houshi proprietors have borne the name Zengoro Houshi.
The current proprietor is the 46th Zengoro!
Funny, you don't look HBO Bluish
Non-linear storytelling taken to a new level, HBO's Imagine website features film and audio clips combined with press clippings in a 3D space which you can navigate at your will. It also includes some "cube scenes" which play from multiple angles at once, revealing hidden events which require you to view the scene from all angles to get all the details. [warning - Flash-to-the-gills design] [more inside]
"I've never been so excited on a 3-1 count in my life."
"I think clearly it's going to be Tuiasosopo today, he's swung the bat well the last few times and he's got an opportunity to play. I expect him to hit his first big league home run today."
Mariners television analyst Mike Blowers makes a goofy pregame prediction... that comes true.
Mariners television analyst Mike Blowers makes a goofy pregame prediction... that comes true.
"I hate Windows, but I hate strawmen Mac evangelists more."
Charlie Brooker's half-serious hatred of Macs is well documented, and he has just revisited the topic again for some reason. Some are a little miffed at the whole thing. (via) [more inside]
gravity
Saturn is no more. "Other industries could learn from the Saturn Corporation.
Certainly GM is taking what they have learned from their Saturn
investment and incorporating it into their existing plants and
facilities where practical. It will not be an overnight
experience. Like Saturn, it will take time, investment and a
strong commitment to regain the role of world leader in the
automobile industry."
The is not your sister's jump rope performance
The Kings Firecrackers performance at a Naval Academy basketball game. When we jumped roped in high school basketball practice I was happy to get through the 60 seconds without falling on my butt. 4th to 8th graders doing this with jump ropes is almost beyond comprehension. 8 minute video - and worth every second of it.
The Justice Gap in America
Nearly one million people who seek help for civil legal problems, such as foreclosures and domestic violence, will be turned away this year. A new report by the Legal Services Corporation, a non-profit established by Congress in 1974 to ensure equal access to justice, finds that legal aid programs turn away one person for every client served. The full report, "Documenting the Justice Gap in America" is available here (pdf). The 2009 report is an update and expansion on a 2005 report (available here) finding that 80% of the poor lacked access to legal aid. [more inside]
Cancer Causing Viruses
Paul Ewald, an evolutionary biologist at University of Louisville in Kentucky states his conviction, in one interview with Discover Magazine that, that by 2050 the human species will have found that between 80% and as high as 95% of cancers are caused by viruses. [more inside]
Beefcake boys... fully clothed
Beefcake boys... fully clothed. Bob Mizer of Athletic Model Guild fame – you may have seen the film Beefcake that dramatized his life – didn’t just shoot nudes. Sometimes his lads kept their clothes on. In the great tradition of hyperspecialized Internet “porn,” Butt magazine (previously) collects some examples of what you could call Mizer’s “chaste” portfolio. (Saucy language, but photos quite safe for work.) [more inside]
Ultramarines!
Crime Time
The 2009 anthology of The Best American Crime Reporting is out. Each year this series collects examples of exceptional and diverse true crime journalism. Many of the entries are available in their online magazines. Starting with "Dan P. Lee, Body Snatchers - Philadelphia magazine" (part of the story previously discussed here), a ghoulish tale of stolen corpses and the market behind him. [more inside]
Ernst Haeckel: Kunstformen der Natur 1899-1904
John McPhee
John McPhee writes about basketball, headmasters, oranges, tennis, hybrid airships, nuclear weapons, bark canoes, Alaska, the Swiss Army, the merchant marines, dissident Soviet artists, shad, long-distance trucking, and - Pulitzer Prize-winningly - geology (282kb PDF). He discusses his work here. [more inside]
UK Asylum Seekers: Let The Right Ones In
The Home Office, the UK government department responsible for immigration control, has initiated a program to test the DNA from of potential asylum seekers in an attempt to confirm their true nationalities. The initial program is a six-month pilot limited to claimants arriving from the Horn of Africa. The program, currently using forensic samples provided on a voluntary basis, could potentially expand to other nationalities if successful. The Home Office spokeswoman said ancestral DNA testing would not be used alone but would be combined with language analysis, investigative interviewing techniques and other recognized forensic disciplines, but many are decrying the "deeply flawed" program, from refugee support groups to scientists in the genetic forensics fields (via). [more inside]
Sing!
Even if you don't know Joe Raposo's name, you probably have heard his music. Throughout the 1970's and 1980's, Joe was the main composer of songs and incidental music for the children's television shows Sesame Street and The Electric Company. In this role, he wrote some of today's standards while also imprinting his musical stylings on the consciousness of a generation of children worldwide. In the second half of this post, you will find a curation of youtube-links leading to a good chunk of Joe Raposo's oeuvre -- all gems, mostly under two minutes each. Sing along if you know the words! [more inside]
Which One Is the Original?
So you think you can tell Arial from Helvetica? Take 20 logos that were originally designed in Helvetica, and redo them in Arial. Some people would call that blasphemy. Instead, call it a challenge: can you tell which is the original and which is the remake?
Superman's powers explained
It is our opinion that all of Superman's recognized powers can be unifi ed if his power is the ability to manipulate, from atomic to kilometer length scales, the inertia of his own and any matter with which he is in contact. The Grand Unifying Theory of Superman's powers. ('pdf) (via)
Adobe UI Gripes
The Three Human Bombs
The scene was the siege of Shanghai, the year 1932. It was more than half a year since the Mukden Incident had provided a pretext for Japan to invade Manchuria and begin moving down through Northern China. Three Imperial Japanese soldiers from an engineering division died in a bomb blast that took out a section of the Chinese fortifications, allowing Japanese forces to surge through the breach and advance.
The fallen soldiers became known as the "Three Human Bombs" (Bakudan Sanyushi / 爆弾三勇士). Memorials were built and murals were painted and the Three Human Bombs were remembered as gallant and selfless heroes who gave their lives for the greater good of Japan, lauded on stage, in film, and in song. A military medal was created to award heroism in honor of the three.
Problem is, it was all a lie. The story of the Three Human Bombs was one of the most successful propaganda campaigns of the early twentieth century.
Free dinner! George Monbiot shows how to catch and prepare American crayfish.
The native British white-clawed crayfish is threatened by extinction from the signal crayfish. Today's Guardian features George Monbiot with one approach to the problem: how to catch and prepare signal crayfish, the brash American cousin. Nice use of recycled materials and beer, but needs more paella recipes.
Save the most people by reporting potholes
Last year, Google launched Project 10^100, a call for world-changing ideas to be funded to the tune of 10 million. At the time, MetaFilter was generally sceptical and Slashdot irreverent. The shortlist has been announced for voting.
« Previous day | Next day »